Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Waste Tyres - Not Necessarily Anymore

We have been associated with some technology to use end of life tyres in civil construction. It works very well and is described at www.ecoflex.com.au .

But more is happening in this space with a lot of success using tyres in steel making.

UNSW collaborated with industry partner OneSteel to
develop ‘green steel’ technology, wherein old tyres and plastics provide a
source of carbon to replace a significant proportion of the non-renewable coke
used to make steel in electric arc furnaces.

The ‘green steel’ technology invented at UNSW has
now achieved a major milestone, with its use in Australia preventing more than
two million waste rubber tyres from ending up in landfill. The discarded tyres
were used by OneSteel, an Arrium company to manufacture steel at its Sydney and
Melbourne facilities.

Professor Sahajwalla, Director of the Centre for
Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT@UNSW) in the Faculty of
Science said they were thrilled to have surpassed the two-million tyre
milestone. The achievement demonstrates the benefits of collaborations between
researchers and industry.

Under an agreement with UNSW’s commercialisation
company, NewSouth Innovations, OneSteel has sub-licensed the technology to
companies in Thailand, South Korea and the United Kingdom and has plans to
further commercialise it around the globe.

Daniel Miles, Manager Steelmaking Solutions at
OneSteel observes that close collaboration between OneSteel and UNSW has turned
an innovative idea into a manufacturing reality. He explains that polymer
injection technology is not only good for the environment, but also offers
financial benefits for the steel manufacturer in terms of reduced electricity
consumption, lower carbon injectant costs as well as yield and productivity
improvements.

Professor Sahajwalla is now working towards her
goal of a 100 per cent recyclable car, developing high-temperature technology
that can turn waste glass and plastic into valuable metallic alloys – an
approach that could also be used to transform electronic waste.

Professor Sahajwalla was awarded $2.2 million
earlier this year by the Federal Government to establish a ‘green
manufacturing’ research hub at UNSW, with industry partners including Arrium,
Brickworks Building Products, Jaylon Industries and Tersum Energy.